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Long-time editor decides to retire

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ELLEN O'CONNELL/Standard-Speaker
Carl Christopher, managing editor of the Standard-Speaker, plans to retire March 29 after 16 years at the helm of the Hazleton newsroom.

Carl Christopher, managing editor of the Standard-Speaker, will step down after 16 years as leader of the Hazleton newsroom.

His retirement, announced to the staff at the newspaper on Friday, will cap a 38-year career at his hometown newspaper.

Christopher will oversee his final news budget meeting and write his last editorial on March 29.

A search will begin immediately for a replacement, said Larry Holeva, executive editor of the Standard-Speaker who also oversees the news operations of The Citizens' Voice in Wilkes-Barre and Times-Tribune in Scranton.

"We have tremendously big shoes to fill," Holeva said. "Carl has been a rock of stability at the newspaper for nearly four decades. He is completely immersed in every aspect of this community."

Christopher, 62, first reported to work at 21 Wyoming St. in August of 1975, one year after finishing graduate studies in journalism at Penn State University. It's been his professional home ever since.

"I've always considered it a privilege to work for my hometown paper," Christopher said. "I've had the honor of working for some very fine people and working with a staff that really understands what matters to readers.

"Through all the changes that have challenged the industry over the years, we're still producing a paper that emphasizes local news. Our readers can't get that depth of coverage anywhere else and many of them have told me they can't imagine starting their day without the Standard-Speaker. That's something I'm proud of."

Christopher joined the Standard-Speaker after a one-year stint at the News-Item in Shamokin at a time when the Standard-Speaker had just converted from hot-metal typesetting to offset printing. He covered the Hazleton Area School District and the police beat, took photographs, did darkroom work and quickly established himself as a versatile journalist capable of wearing many hats.

Through the years he became a decorated news reporter before moving into the editing ranks. He and the staff at the newspaper earned a series of awards for coverage of the 1976 firebombing in Hazleton that killed deputy sheriff Eugene Boyarski, his wife and three young children. He also served as lead reporter on the divisive five-week Hazleton Area teachers strike of 1975.

Christopher became night editor at the newspaper in 1980 just as the newsroom shifted from manual typewriters to computers, and later moved to the day desk when the Standard-Speaker still published an afternoon edition. He oversaw the launch of the newspaper's Sunday edition and became the first Sunday editor in 1996.

He supervised and managed the production of a 125-page special section, "Pages from the Past," that commemorated the newspaper's 125th anniversary. The section became a statewide award-winner and a collector's item.

Long-time editor Ray Saul retired in 1997 at a time when technology was advancing at lightning speed. The Walser family, who had owned the newspaper since 1912, selected Christopher to lead the news operation as the newspaper shifted to computerized page production and later began to position itself online.

Scranton-based Times-Shamrock Communications purchased the newspaper in 2007 and Christopher worked to restructure the news operation and share content with sister newspapers, The Citizens' Voice and Pottsville Republican & Herald. The change allowed the Standard-Speaker to expand county and state news coverage while maintaining its emphasis on Hazleton area news.

Christopher, a 1968 graduate of Hazleton High School, resides in Hazleton with his wife, the former Anne Gormley. They have two sons, Ryan, Hazleton, and Andrew, Washington D.C., and a daughter, Samantha, Annville.

The newspaper plans to have a new editor in place to direct the Hazleton operation by the beginning of April, Holeva said.

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